THE DEER OF THE PEKING PARKS 279 
stated that he had formerly ridden among the herds which 
swarmed in the imperial park, where they appear to have 
been reserved for the sport of the Court, and were care- 
fully protected. Whether, in later years, less care was 
taken than formerly to see that the park and its sur- 
rounding wall were in good condition, the account does 
not state; but during or about the year 1894 the Hun-ho, 
which flows through the park, became flooded, and 
breached the wall in several places. Through the gaps 
thus made all the mi-lou deer escaped, and appear to 
have been killed and eaten by the peasantry of the sur- 
rounding districts, who were suffering at that time from 
famine. In his letter Dr. Bushell promised to make in- 
quiries on his return to China if any of the deer had 
escaped destruction, but as nothing more has been heard 
from him on the subject, it may be presumed that all were 
slaughtered. 
Assuming, then, that the mi-lou deer does not exist 
in a wild state in some unexplored part of Kashgaria, 
or other remote part of Central Asia, it seems only 
too evident that its sole living representatives are those 
preserved in European collections. By far the greater 
number of these are now at Woburn Abbey, where they 
run in the open park with the other deer. They breed 
freely, without an undue proportion of males among the 
fawns; a very hopeful sign being that some hinds pur- 
chased from Paris, where they were sterile, bred after they 
were transferred to their new quarters. Some time ago 
the herd at Woburn numbered over twenty head, and it 
has probably increased since that date. One point in 
favour of the prospects of the survival of the Woburn 
herd is the fact that the species has for centuries been 
kept in a state of semi-domestication—that is to say it has 
